Yet Another Study That Says Young People Care Less About Privacy

One of my younger colleagues pinged me today with a site she thought I should check out: "Trial by Timeline." The tool, offered by New Zealand's Amnesty International branch, promises to "analyze your Facebook profile to find crimes you're guilty of before showing you how you'd be punished" in different countries. It's a way for the non-profit to demonstrate to carefree (kiwi) Facebook users how different life might be under a repressive regime. When I asked the tool to "sentence me," it attempted to connect to my Facebook profile informing me that it wanted access to my friend list, all of my status updates, my contact information, my photos, my religious and political views, my check-ins, and on and on.

I balked and remarked to my colleague that it was a rather invasive tool. It struck me as too high a privacy price to pay for an imaginary sentencing. My colleague, though, had already handed over her data, informing me that she was guilty of "137 convictions for 6 crimes in 70 countries." Beyond being impressed by her level of "criminal activity," I took note that her price on privacy is lower than mine.

My colleague and I are both Millennials -- at least according to the definition in a new study which puts anyone under 35 in that camp. The study conducted by USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future and Bovitz Inc. suggests that Millennials are more comfortable handing over their personal information to businesses than those in the 35-and-over camp, as long as they receive "tangible benefits" in return. That might include, in the case of my colleague, an imaginary prison sentence.

“I’m ok with trading some of my personal information in exchange for more relevant advertising:” 25 percent of Millennials vs. 19 percent of Internet users age 35 and older.

Willing to share information with companies “as long as I get something in return:” 51 percent of Millennials agreed vs. 40 percent of those age 35 and older.

The problem with these surveys is that they ask participants vague, hypothetical questions about what they're willing to do. I'd rather see a bunch of research participants confronted with this Trial by Timeline tool and see which ones hand over the data and which ones don't. Still, that didn't stop the study conductor from making some broad claims about the survey's meaning.

“Online privacy is dead -- Millennials understand that, while older users have not adapted," says Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, in a press release. "Millennials recognize that giving up some of their privacy online can provide benefits to them. This demonstrates a major shift in online behavior -- there’s no going back."